


To Rush Would Be a Crime

by Ray_Writes



Series: Tumblr Prompts [35]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 23:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15083897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ray_Writes/pseuds/Ray_Writes
Summary: Another night, another prison cell.





	To Rush Would Be a Crime

**Author's Note:**

> Another little prompt fill for an anon on tumblr I whipped up today. Title comes from the song "Nice 'N' Easy" written by Lew Spence and Alan & Marilyn Bergman, and popularized by Frank Sinatra. It's not necessary to listen to, but it's a fun tune. In any case, enjoy the fic!

Well, he’d done it at last: gotten Donna to a beach. Of course, he hadn’t exactly been aiming for the middle of the night.

Not one to be too discouraged by a trip gone wrong, the Doctor had led them outside anyway for a walk along the shore. Donna had absolutely refused to go in the water, of course, as she’d argued it was sure to be freezing.

“This is nice though, isn’t it?” He asked. “Just hearing the waves, no crowds, and look at that moon! I mean, that is beautiful. And it’s a good light to see by.”

In fact, due to a unique quirk of this particular planet’s atmosphere, the light that bounced off its moon sort of cast a reddish glow to everything, only enhancing Donna’s already vibrant hair.

She gave a sort of agreeable hum. “Moonlight is the only light I like. The sun burns me.” Then she glanced down at herself. “Course, I don’t see how I could get much redder than I am now.”

“You look fine,” he dismissed before she could really get going. When was she finally going to realize there was nothing wrong with her body or herself as a person?

She looked back up at him, some reply on the tip of her tongue, but he’d never get to here it.

“Hey, you two! What do you think you’re doing?” A couple flashlights were shown their way, and they looked back to see some of the locals standing up by some of the higher sand dunes. “This beach is closed!”

“What, even for just a stroll?”

They didn’t take too kindly to that. He and Donna ended up thrown in a cell for trespassing, having not quite been able to make a run for it back to the TARDIS before being caught. It wasn’t too much of a problem; he still had the sonic. It was only a matter of getting the old, rusty lock to cooperate.

“I can’t  _believe_  you didn’t check the curfew.” Donna sat on the bench with her arms crossed to wait, as she’d clearly determined this was going to take a while. “Didn’t you think they might have a curfew?”

He didn’t know if it was frustration at her or the lock that caused him to snap. “Maybe I didn’t! Have you ever thought about that?”

“Oh, don’t tell me this is where you finally admit you don’t know everything,” said Donna.

The Doctor whirled around, lock forgotten. “I don’t! I don’t know everything. I don’t know what happened to the Lost Moon of Poosh, or which came first, the chicken or the egg, or why you seem incapable of not putting yourself down every other chance!”

Donna’s mouth fell open. She didn’t seem to have a single thing to say.

Well, he did. “I don’t know why you do it. You can’t possibly like to hear it, and I certainly don’t. If either of us ought to be more humble, it’s me, but it’s not about that with you. It’s just mean.” He took the two steps that lay between them in their little cell. “It’s just you being mean to yourself, and I don’t know why you feel you have to, Donna, but you don’t. Have you ever thought about  _that_? There’s no reason you have to do this to yourself. So why?”

“I- I don’t--” She stopped and took a breath, and when she blinked he realized her eyes were growing wet with tears.

Regret washed over him immediately. The Doctor sat beside her and took out a handkerchief. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I- I think I needed to hear that.” Donna dabbed at her eyes for a few moments, then added quietly, “I don’t know why I do it either. I hate it when my mum does, or Nerys, or Lance or any of the rest of them did. But I...I’m just so  _used_  to it. And I guess a part of me knows they’re not wrong.”

“But they are. Donna, don’t you see how wrong they are about you?”

She wouldn’t look at him. He took her hand.

“Donna, if you ever listen to me about anything, listen to this. You are brilliant and beautiful and kind.”

Donna snorted but didn’t pull away. “Right, that’s why I’m still single and nearing forty, because I’m such a great catch.”

“Well, the human race has been known to be dense about even more obvious things before. But someday you will find someone who  _does_  see all of that about you. There’s no reason not to see it in yourself in the meantime. And until then, you’ve got me.”

It occurred to him that he’d gone a touch over the line at the end there, and so the Doctor coughed and patted her hand before standing and withdrawing the sonic again. That door wasn’t going to unlock itself.

Donna was very quiet for a long time. Distressingly quiet. He’d almost be afraid she’d been kidnapped from behind him again if he didn’t know they were already locked in a cell. His increasing nerves made him fumble the lock a couple times, but he eventually got it.

“After you,” he said, holding the door open and gesturing out into the hall grandly. Their jailers hadn’t actually left a guard since the plan was to supposedly let him and Donna out in the morning, but neither of them really had the patience for that sort of thing.

Donna stood, but paused in front of him on her way out of the cell. “You know, ‘someday’ can wait a while. No rush.”

The Doctor smiled and watched as she did likewise. “No rush.”


End file.
